McConnell Anticipates Another Failed Budget

By Katy O'Donnell

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., fired off the standard Republican talking points about President Obama’s fiscal priorities on Sunday in anticipation of the release of the president’s fiscal year 2013 budget on Monday.

“You know, last year I had to offer his budget for him,” McConnell said on CBS’ Face the Nation, referring to Obama’s 2012 fiscal-year budget, which Republicans brought up for a show vote in the Senate. The budget had been dismissed by budget wonks and fiscal hawks as an unrealistic press release – even the White House tacitly acknowledged it was a political marker as Democrats waited to see what the House GOP would do with its budget. Obama’s budget was defeated 0-97.

McConnell repeated the well-worn point that Senate Democrats “haven't passed a budget in a thousand days, even though the law requires it.”

While some Democrats, like Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., have bristled at the allegation, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., recently said the Senate wouldn’t need to pass a budget this year either because of the caps set by the Budget Control Act passed in August.

McConnell made clear that he wouldn’t let Obama’s budget request slide by this year, either.

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“I intend to offer the president's budget for him so he'll have a chance to get a vote on it,” McConnell said.